The past couple of days have been rediculously pleasant and spring-like, so the past few evenings Lexy, Lateef and I tossed either a football, a baseball, the shit, or all three at once as the daylight faded into the smell of Mike's wonderful cooking. And of course the bike riding has been so far off the proverbial hook--yesterday Mike and I rode the Black Mountain trail with some locals goons, and it reminded me of how friggen incredible the riding is in Pisgah. Somewhat worldly for a 21 year old, I've ridden my fair share of epic rides out west--Wasatch Crest Trail, the 401 trail in Crested Butte, crap like that....but nothing, and I mean nothing, compares to the wonder that is Pisgah National Forest. I mean, the mandatory hike-a-bike up rock faces (even if you're an incredible badass, just plain nuts, or Marshall Hance) followed by gnar-gnar descents that drop you through rhodo forests, creek crossings, and the realization that this is the best fucking place ever.
I'm also currently very content with the length of day: the sun rises as I go for my morning run and is setting by the time I'm finishing my day's ride, which means I get to see, twice daily, the amazing sky patterns that result from VOC's, HC's and other air pollutants that hover over the Blue Ridge Mountains and make for stunning views. I mean, crazy pinks over amazing blues--a swath of pastels over the bold blueish-gray outline of the mountains. It's beautiful, but it kinda stinks that the sprawl of West Asheville sorta gets in the way. I wish I were deeper in the woods, but I suppose that would just mean a farther walk to Ingles. So it's a give-and-take, I guess.
And then there was last night: Megs and Mike came up with the idea of having a Hipster party, which would give Mike an excuse to wear tight jeans and Megs and excuse to oggle boys in tight jeans--but this idea exploded into one hell of a house party. An incredible all-star cast of characters showed up and a series of micro-parties formed throughout the house, resulting in a several forums of crazy antics, good conversations, half-assed dance parties, flip-cup, Pat wrenching on bikes (as would be expected), hook-ups, new friendships, two random dogs running amok, people crashing on couches, people crashing on Mike's bed so that he had to sleep on the floor in his own house, and so on...The party ended at about 3 am, and the house was cleaned (except for the sticky-ass disgusting kitchen floor, but whatever...) by 9:30 the next morning, so it was awesome. But of course we didn't take any pictures, and apparently no quotes resulted (as nothing was added to our quote board, sigh) so we really don't have any proof that this ever happened. And now we're sitting here, about as groggy as the grey, rain-filled sky, ears still ringing, contemplating a road ride, appreciating the lack of earnest that is a Sunday afternoon.
The moral of this story, or "post" as blogspot would have it, is that adult life isn't too bad. It's awesome, in fact. And spring is going to make it even better...especially once we get a basketball and start poaching the hoop down the street from us. It's going to be non-stop pick-up sports, and we can have social gatherings outside so that our kitchen floor doesn't get so sticky. I can't wait.
And a certain someone will be here in three weeks, which has created a sort of perma-grin on my face, and the segmentation of my life into "this weekend, then next, which will be tree work, then the next weekend, which is when I go to Cleveland, then that next weekend, when he gets here!!!" Also, race season starts in a month, which is super, and I registered for the GRE's today too, so its time to get serious. Well, more or less.
